Anand Crafts

When some members of Anand Mahila Mandal (women's society) in a Delhi leprosy colony decided to go into production making tatted handicrafts they called themselves Anand Crafts

Anand Crafts - updated October 2016

Name

Anand Mahila Mandal

Location in India

tahirpur, New Delhi, India

Type of Group

Mahila Mandal (Women's Society)

Type of Craft

Tatting

Products

Christmas decorative ornaments

No. of women

10

No. of men

0

Total

10

Leprosy affected

0

Family member of people affected by leprosy

10

Other disabilities

0

No. of artisans with no disabilities

10

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BUSINESS

Sales to MESH in 2014-15

Rs. 215,925

Total Sales in the year 2014-15

Rs. 215,925

Sales to MESH 2015-16

Rs. 313,200

Total sales in the year 2015-16

Rs. 313,200

Sales target to MESH in 2016-17

Rs. 400,000

Total sales target in 2016-17

Rs. 400,000

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DEVELOPMENTS

1. Development or capacity building programmes organised by the group in 2015-16

Nil

2. Group 's participation in capacity building programmes

MESH's Network meetings

3. New products introduced in the year

New Christmas decorations

4a. Achievements/changes in the group in the year

Making a number of new designs

5. New activities actions in the year

Attending MESH trainings for the first time

6. Major learnings in the last year

Nil

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Fair Trade affiliations

Under MESH's Fair Trade monitoring system

Anand Mahila Mandal is a women’s society in a leprosy colony in north Delhi which was catalysed into formation by MESH in a special project in 1999. The colony is an old one with a high level of organisation and solidarity that in the early days saw the most disabled people affected leprosy lobbying on the lawns of the Governor’s house to get proper facilities and a recognised place to stay. MESH has worked with the members of the colony for several decades training them to raise broiler chickens for sale through MESH and in how to weave to make cotton tablecloths and bed spreads for export most of them to IM Soir. As the older people lobbied government many were given jobs as corporation sweepers and many of the children went to boarding school to ensure proper education and readiness for employment. MESH chicken and weaving business trailed off as the demand for employment fell in the community.

When MESH decided to run a project for the women it was with the intention of providing them with tools to lobby for their rights, to form a solidarity group to support one another in women’s affairs in the colony and also to see if those women who had small children and could not go out for work could earn a living from home.

Eve Goldsmith, a lace teacher from UK found, herself in Delhi with her husband who had work as an engineering consultant and she offered to teach the women of the new Mahila Mandal how to do tatting. Eve, met the women two days a week in the home of the Executive Secretary of MESH and with no common language except that of keen eyes and an interest to learn a skill she was able to teach them how to make pretty tatted motifs, greetings cards and Christmas decorations.

Once a range of products were ready they were shown to MESH for marketing and the issue of how much they cost was raised. In fascinating sessions MESH team talked them through what they thought they should be paid for each hour of work, saw that they undervalued their skills and guided them in methods of costing and pricing, sourcing the raw materials themselves and quality checking to ensure consistent high quality. Meanwhile Eve continued to teach new techniques and showed them how to read simple tatting patterns.

The group suffered a set back when their elected President borrowed the group funds and failed to repay them. The members rallied and discussed the problem in a group until they came to an agreed consensus to elect a new president, and move ahead.

There are 10 women tatting now, all are family members of people affected by leprosy and do not have the disease themselves. They have high levels of skill and faultless eye for detail and final finish. Some women left to go for fulltime work once their children were grown, others stayed on and have used their earnings to meet school and tuition fees for their children, to buy jewellery, important when a young woman becomes a bride, and to meet health care costs during major illnesses. They are practicing an old craft but they do it with a level of professionalism that is unmatched in any of the groups with whom we work. Their parents had leprosy and they grew up as kids from the leprosy colony, now many of the people directly affected by leprosy are dead and the community is more integrated. The Mahila Mandal and their Anand Crafts tatting group is a fine model for their daughters of how it is possible to earn even whilst staying at home to take care of the children.

New products designed in MESH Design studio, made by Anand Crafts and exported across the world from England to Australia, and Canada.